AAD010 – Textiles and product design

PRODUCT DESIGN:

Initial Research

Artist One: Cristian Marianciuc

Marianciuc uses layers of different coloured paper to create spiritual looking origami birds in his series called ‘A crane a day’. Marianciuc never fails with adding detail to each sculpture in his layers; whether its wings upon feathers and feathers he has height and structure in his pieces. He is inspired by everything in his surroundings from sounds, seasons and smells. The first ‘bird’ (the left image) is his most colourful sculpture. He describes it as, “It is a floral-fruity infusion with an animalic touch; it is carnal, intoxicating and primal. If I close my eyes and smell it, I see images of hands covered in dirt, feet stomping on grapes and a lover’s mouth breathing in one’s ear. ‘Civet Chypre’ is goosebumps-inducing olfactive art. It is the attempt to smell your lover’s heartbeat through their skin.” He uses pinks, blues, purples, yellows, greens and oranges to show this summer love story. The second ‘bird’ (the right picture) is inspired by autumn, he conveys this with his rustic colour palette. He describes this bird as, “An elegant, soft and smoky leather scent. It makes me think of a smooth and creamy tobacco, if ever there were such a thing. The notes in this fragrance are very much in tune with how I perceive autumn! I can pick out a burnt sweetness mixed with a woody creaminess that make it impossible not to feel like a giant blanket is being wrapped around you. There is also a subtle citrus note in the opening that lingers on, but gradually decreases in intensity.”

Artist Two: Cecilia Levy

Levy has many series is which she creates everyday objects and nature out of old paper/ books/ diaries. Her series which drew my attention the most was the ‘In fusion – Contemplation pieces, medical plants.’ She creates flowers, vines and thistles wrapped up a wire stands for display. In this series Levy uses the same photographer, Photographer: Alvaro Campo, for each sculpture, conveying the same style and ideals for each medial plant. The ‘Ivy, hedera helix’ (the left picture) is made of Book pages, wheat paste, steel wire, polystyrene, concrete base. Height 30 cm, base ø 36 cm. This sculpture is very bending and fiddling, you can only imagine how precise Levy must have been to get the vine to wrap without crinkling nay of the delict ivy leaves. The ‘Holly, ilex aquifolium’ (the right picture) is made from book pages, wheat paste, steel wire, polystyrene, concrete base. Height 35 cm, base ø 36 cm. The holly berries may be made out of the same paper; however it is painted a red colour like the holly berries; this contrasts from Levy’s other sculptures showing she creates more than just pure white and tan elegant pieces.

Artist Three: Geraldine Gonzalez

Gonzalez’s paper lanterns hang from the ceilings in his exhibits (he has exhibits in Paris for these jellyfish only). These jellyfish when lit up look angelic and holy. The materials Gonzalez uses are linen paper, wire and tissue paper. The head of the jelly fish is made of the harder materials, linen paper and wire to sculpt/ shape the head. Gonzalez has connected the heavenly tentacles float beneath the head. The colour palettes he uses are very simplistic; contains white, cream very light lime, light purples and red. These are realistic colours of real jellyfish. His paper jellyfish size from 30cm to one metre. These different sizes contrast when hung up together in a way beautiful, the viewers are not swamped by large lanterns. The smaller jellyfish in between larger lanterns show good judgement of placements. Also contrasting when they are lit up as the smaller jellyfish exhume more light than the larger ones, making the smaller ones brighter with electricity and that is why the larger ones are more colourful so you can see the colour more vibrantly.

Paper folding

(beside/above each series of photos gives a brief description)

The photo to the right shows my first attempts of folding 10cm colour paper into 3D patterns. I decided to use colour paper rather than white paper so they would stand out as well as being able to see highlights and shadows with colour tone. The folds were made mainly with folding and pressure with my hands, as well as some having more scalping than others. These squares are in order so I created them from top left yellow as the first and the bottom right pink as the last.

The college to the right shows a white folded and scalped piece of white paper with a bright light on each side. The original 2D paper was cut into a a wavy tadpole shape with a scalped out smaller tadpole shape. The small tadpole shape was rolled up into a spiral shape above the flat base. Below shows more examples of the chiaroscuro lighting.

Continuing with the small white paper expressive models. I created another second spiral model. This time instead of scalping out a slit, I kept the white paper without cuts. The base is flat and the wavy shape end was curled up and folded into a rose like spiral shape.

Once this model was made a connected it with the first paper model. Sliding the second paper model into the paper cut out section of the first paper mode. The spirals don’t interlink, they are beside each other but separate; keeping the integrity of the folded spirals.

I made another light paper model instead of white paper I made it out of purple paper. It also has cuts in the paper however they are very small diamonds shapes in-between the 3D diagonal lines folded on the paper; light is seen through these wholes. Again using a strong light source I achieved strong shadows, these shadows are not as expressive as above.

Based on how the photos above look I want to scalpel more diamond shapes out to create less negative space shadows.

After seeing how the light could be manipulated I decided to roll this rectangle into a sphere like shape so it looks like a lantern, as inspiration an a possible prototype for my final paper light.

Final Paper Light

I like the idea of light coming out in sections of cut out shapes. The purple paper I previously used was quite thick so it was difficult to get the amount of light admitted from the paper lantern. However, I did like the use of a dark colour of a paper light to contrast from the bright light shinning out of the paper. Hence why I decided to paint the outside of the A2 white folded paper, a black acrylic wash. I left the inside of the paper lamp white because white bounces bright light and black absorbs the light white. After the paint was dry I scalped half diamond shapes in each section of the folds and curled the half cut out shapes into spirals.

After the paint was dry I scalped half diamond shapes in each section of the folds and curled the half cut out shapes into spirals. These holes allow the bright light to come out of black. The bottom left photo shows the scalpel details. The middle photo shows the light from within the lamp from above. The right photo shows the light pattern it produces on the roof.

The amount of holes in the sides of the paper lamp gave me the idea to put fairy lights in the holes. This had a beautiful outcome of looking like a sky full of stars. Below shows photos of the light on with a full dark room for the whole star experience as well as what it would look like in the light. As well as the fairy light details.

TEXTILES:

Initial Research

Textile Artist: Lesly Richmond

The photo to the left is an example of Richmond’s textiles art from her leaf cloth series, “Leaf cloth dance 1” (It is 107cm X 107cm). Richmond is an English textile artist who is one of the most widely represented textile artists around the world. Her art works have been displayed in several countries across the world, including Poland, China and Korea as well as the U.S and Canada. Richmond’s main inspiration has always been the architectural elegance of nature and tranquil environments around her since the start of her textile artist career. Richmond’s love for trees and leaves helped her when making her most popular series, called ‘Leaf’ and ‘Distant Forest’. Richmond states, “Trees are an important symbol in many cultures. They are used in myths and legends and are generally a revered image. Their long lives allow them to watch over many changes in history. There is a change in atmosphere as one enters a forest, which could give a feeling of a sanctuary or convey a sense of unease.” Her manta is to create pieces that appear organic regardless of what ever material has been used the most and in the fashion industry. Richmond photographs trees, focusing on the intricacy of their branching structures and then prints these images on cloth, using a medium that creates a dimensional surface. She then eliminates selected background areas, leaving the structural images of trees as the dominant feature. The images are then painted with metal patinas and pigments.

Textile designer: Mary White

As a vintage old-fashioned textile designer, she was creative beyond her time. The iconic design to the right is called ‘Coppice, 1954’. Made from roller printed cotton and heals fabric (38cm X 68cm). Many of her designs were created in her small countryside cottage but the appeal was worldwide, as proven by her designs in exhibitions in multiple locations like the ‘Designing Women of Post War Britain’, ‘Colorado Springs Fine Art Centre’, ‘2008 Women Design’, and ‘Heritage Patterns and Colours’. White was known for several iconic textile prints of the 1950s. She studied textile design at Thanet School of Art and Crafts and worked with the design studio of David Whitehead. White was designing during the same period as British textile designer, Lucienne Day. Her textiles were also commissioned for RMS Queen Mary and Heathrow Airport. White drew on the work of William Morris, books of flowers and the countryside where she grew up, to create hundreds of designs in her career. Her own designs consist of repeating college of patterns all over. These patterns are made of floral line drawings of nature like leaves, ferns, flowers and stems. These line drawings are presented on top of shapes of block colours with . Her work shows elements of graphics and illustrations. Her colour palettes are always bright and vibrant complementary colours like pinks, yellows, blues and reds.

Fashion Designer: Iris Van Herpen

Herpen is an innovative fashion designer who has had her remarkable garments walk down countless amounts of runways, plastered over vogue and other magazines. Herpen is for her extraordinary silhouettes. She is majorly influenced by the diverse facets of nature. The photo of the fashion runway to the left is Herpens Spring/Sumer 2020 runway called ‘Sensory Seas’. Herpen draws inspiration for this series from the sensory processes that occur between the intricate composition of the human body, mirrored with the fibrous marine ecology of our oceans. The collection consists 21 silhouettes that illustrate a portrait of liquid labyrinths, where dresses spill onto the floor in elegant train and pigments gather in clouded pools of blues and lilac, leaking into one another. Most looks are 3D printed from a single-lined web using white silicone thread, that is printed onto black silk-chiffon, twisting down the body. For the ‘Hydrozoa’ (Hydrozoa are a taxonomic class of individually very small, predatory animals, some solitary and some colonial, most living in salt water) technique, cellular aquarelles of dark purples and turquoise were oil-painted and multi-layered into hundreds of transparent lasercut PetG bubbles. The halos were digitally printed, heat-bonded and then hand-stitched into voluminous splashes. My favourite look from this line up of models is the second to the left. This blue bubble look is called ‘Nautiloid’, a dress which features translucent layers of blue, green and ochre meshwork. The 3D laser cut bubbles are might to mirror the anthropology of a marine organism. The silhouette of this garment obstructs the models natural think figure, creating a very circular whirlpool effect on the models’ mid-section. This look is very eye catching her the pale tones of the dress with no accommodating jewellery the viewer cannot help but only be amazed by this outfit.

Mood Board

My mood board consists of forest elements like leaves, and trees. As well as woman, pollution, mountains and space/ the sky. My colour palette was made of white, black, blue, green, pink and yellow. With both my colour palette and mood board I wanted bright vibrant colours for a mother nature appearance.

Weaving

(below/beside each series of photos gives a brief description)

This first weave shows the full process of my weaving. The original paper is a fun painted sketch I made to practice faces in shapes, this art was not going any where important hence why I used it. The final outcome did not come out like a square shape. I approve this worth experimenting. For the next five weaves for a material used magazine pages

To the left shows the source material used to create the weave. The black and white paper is ink on paper (the middle photo) I made for a design. The other blue galaxy page with writing is from a magazine (the left photo). I used the same method of weaving as the first method and weave above. This weave is supposed to look like flashes of colour and monochrome (the right photo), to symbolise the amount of high points and low points in a persons life.

Instead of using only patterned pieces of paper, I choose a page with a model from one of the magazine to make a green and blue female juxtaposition (the right photo). In the magazine layout of the model she is lying down asleep on the forest forest. However, in my weave I have positioned her scattered around the weave, making the viewer not able to see what state she was originally in. There was a lot of material used with this weave as I painted an A5 page (the left photo) and used an A4 magazine page with it (the middle photo).

Carrying on with the human model juxtaposition theme, I used one magazine page with a large woman in prayer and the other one with five small women climbing a mountain. Showing the difference in lifestyles women have everyday and the difference in environments; forest vs. mountains.

My fifth weave had symbolism for the pollution of our oceans, lakes and rivers. This is very loose weaving with ripped stripes of pages – it was less precise. The mermaid is centre and being suffocated by plastic bottles around her. Contrasting from her blue bottle ‘ocean; surrounding there is green forest to show a juxtaposition of location. This weaving is to symbolise how our Earth should be ‘breathing’ and how we throw away out pollution mindlessly.

This weave I used the ripped loose paper method again. When choosing which magazine paper to use I decided to pick this very vibrant page and contrast it with the white magazine page with text on it from an article (the right photo). I personally believe this weave is the most beautiful and elegant as the layers are spread out evenly and the colour balance out between the white article. I find this weave even more beautiful to the soul as the article is about strong ethic woman in Asia is paired with these women carrying on their traditions into the modern world.

After making six weaves being made of all the same material, being painted paper or magazine pages, I decided to change my media and try a different type of weaving. I created a circular thread weave into cardboard. I really liked the final outcome of this weave. The colour thread pattern order in order from centre to outer as yellow, pink, dark pink, white, yellow, green and white.

Running stitches

The right picture shows my layout and source materials while I started the running stitches. I used thread colours of yellow, dark pink, green, brown and white. An old strip of a burlap was used to be sewn into (the left photo). At first I only made running stitches, then I changed straight lines into swirls, zigzags, baste stitch, chain stitch and catch stitches.

This photo to the left is developed stitch work from my previous burlap running stitches. I stitched into white polystyrene wrap with green thread for a leaf attached to a stem and yellow thread for a leaf and butterfly. This was to practice making my running stitches into shapes.

Ceramics

(beside/ above each series of photos gives a brief description)

The left photo is a the reference I am using from my previous townscape drawing module.

The middle photo is the view finder over the townscape, to pick what I would craft for my ceramics.

The photo to the right is a quick brief outline of the viewfinder area. Next I followed the line shape with air dry clay.

I found the clay laying out and crafting fun and quick. I picked the area to craft due to it having lots of horizontal, vertical and diagonal line, which is best for this type of ceramic. However, I had problems with thickness of the clay – I found this out by the clay breaking; I corrected this problem by redoing the structure which were too thin. Below is a series of photos that show my process from start to finish.

I used paint brushes to elevate the diagonal and horizontal clay lines. Once both clay models were complete and dry I attached them together with more wet clay. To make sure the clay was curved I placed a small notebook under the middle of the complete wet clay ceramic. I repeated these steps with my second side of my ceramic. Finally when both sides were dry and attached together I stood the ceramic up by itself.

Paper cut patterns

(above each series of photos gives a brief description)

I used an A5 white page of paper for the patterns and for the background I used an A4 cover of a sketchbook. I started with basic shapes of wiggly lines. I have 68 photos below of 68 different patterns. As I progressed my patterns had a gradual increasing negative space. After I had the block patterns complete, I cut slithers of more wavy lines into the original blocks to give a third party to the pattern.

The first wavy separate cut line was reasonably thick. I placed it originally not over lapping any other paper, then I decided to create a 3D aspect and started overlapping the paper and shadows started occurring. I discovered with the three pieces of paper I had I could make a bird like silhouette. After third I cut a very thin new wavy line.

When the thin line was introduced I places the largest to the thinnest line i order making the pattern looking it is was moving/fading away.

I starting thinking about the original blocks again after I crafted the cut offs. I decided to cut off more cut off from the block but changing the original side wave shape on the side of the paper – creating a series of completely different patterns from the series of patterns above.

The middle and right photo above shows how I created 3D work in the paper. I cut out a piece from this 3D piece and later on use the cut out section on the 3D piece to slot in other patterns to into it, to eliminate as much negative space as possible. This made me want to focus on more patterns than using the original paper blocks just to block the space.

Garment photography

(above each series of photos gives a brief description)

The task was to select six pieces of clothing that matches my colour palette however I only had three pieces of these colours. To make up for this I created more arrangements of the garments. I started with normal layouts, then started wrapping the arms of the clothes on top of each other. After this I got more creative with rolling clothes in heaps, folds, scrunching up and building nest like structures. In some of the arrangements I wanted to focus on the details in the clothes, like the stitching and buttons etc.

After these series of photos I decided to photoshop and edit my favourite of the garments. I edited opacity layers of patterns and other garment arrangements together, as well editing different colour elements.

Out of the 10 drawings above I drew 2D studies with traditional media like chalk, pencils, pens, etc, for development. I also created 3D studies inspired by these studies and edited photos; using textile fabrics, cardboard and other materials with media on them.

2D and 3D Studies

(beside the right each photos gives a brief description)

The media used was coloured chalk.

This piece is A4 size.

This drawing isn’t full of colour or detail as it will be used later on for 3D or textile drawings.

Firstly, I suck down white patterns paper for the top, a piece of green paper for a part of the jacket and ripped stripes of yellow paper for the cardigan. The dragon was drawn in black pen then tone was added with purple and yellow paint on the head and the body had charcoal. More chalk was added to the cardigan for the wool details. Additionally, Paint was added to look like one of the photoshops above (black paint dots were applied with the bottom of a pen).

This piece is A3 size.

The media used was acrylic paint with a palette knife to give it 3D texture.

This piece is A5 size.

This will be used later on for 3D or textile drawings.

The media used was acrylic paint on polystyrene wrap.

I felt inspired to paint the inside of the polystyrene wrap then fold it over, due to most of my garment photography was folded on themselves

This piece is A5 size.

This is a mixture different drawings (the first three drawings above) to make a threaded 3D college. I used white thread because any other colour would dominate away from the drawings.

This piece is A4 size.

Below shows my layout materials when I was completing this;

This is same college from above but turned upside down. The gold/ yellow is paper is a card with that design. I laid the same previous drawings onto the back, with some additional stitching. I was more experimental with shape of this college as as there is more over lapping outside of a square shape because of the different sized and shaped card, paper and the painted polystyrene wrap.

This piece is A4 size.

Speed Fashion Drawings

My speed drawings were taking from the moschino spring summer 2021 fashion show. I drew 15 sketches of the garments. Completed in 2B pencil.

Denim Challenge

(above/beside each series of photos gives a brief description)

In the beginning I was not sure what I was going to create so I collected images of denim designs, denim colours and patterns; and putting them together into a mood board (the left photo). I liked the idea of mixed denim or matching normal denim with bleached or colour dyed denim.

I got the large old jeans from ‘Charis; charity shop as I had no old spare jeans.

Once I decided what to wear I sketched a design plan (the right photo).

Below shows with how I created my denim garment from start to finish;